Such a pretty kimono! So delicate, so charming. And such a lovely young maiden…too bad she’s a DRAGON.

The story of Kiyohime is the original Fatal Attraction. She fell in love with a handsome young Buddhist monk, and when he spurned her, her rage was so great that she turned into a ferocious purple dragon. We suspect the monk had it coming to him. The two images above are both 19th century Japanese prints depicting crucial moments in the story. On the left, Kiyohime is in pursuit of her lover but hasn’t yet turned into a dragon. On the right we see her in the terrible moment of actual transformation—and it’s definitely terrible, because we have no idea what’s going on with that kimono. Our costume is the next stage: she still has her kimono on, but her head and body have already turned dragony and purple.